You may feel more pain when it's freezing cold — and there are some biological reasons for that

This could be down to a few different biological
reasons, including increased sensitivity and constricted
veins.

Either way, make sure to wrap up warm in the current
icy weather to avoid hurting yourself.

It can sometimes feel like there's a lot to be sad about
when winter arrives. Cold weather, shorter, darker days, a
round of illnesses spreading through the office.

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And it often feels as though painful things, like hitting your
elbow or stubbing your toe, hurt more when it's cold out. And it
is very cold right now - freezing temperatures and snow have
currently hit Europe due to the "Beast from the East" blowing
in from Siberia.

According to Dr John Mcbeth, a pain expert and researcher from
Manchester University, it might not all be in your head. In fact,
he says, there are several biological reasons that may underpin
why pain feels more intense in the wintertime.

"Pain is our body's way of telling us that something is wrong. We
have sensors all over our body [that] pick up information about
our body and our environment and send that information to our
brain," he told Business Insider. "When we are exposed to
something potentially dangerous like extreme temperatures - hot
or cold - these sensors send a warning message to our brain. We
experience that warning message as pain."

However, normally people are not exposed to such extremes, but
many people will complain that the cold weather has made their
bad hip ache, or that bump on the elbow even more sore.

One theory is that cold causes changes in our joints.

Colder temperatures can shrink the tissues in our joints like our
knees and hips, which can cause them to pull on the nerve endings
and cause joint pain, Mcbeth says. However, this doesn't account
for the pain people feel elsewhere in their bodies.

Another explanation is that disease in general causes people to
be more sensitive.

Rheumatoid Arthritis, for example, is caused by your body
attacking itself and causing inflammation. This reaction may also
affect the body's sensors and cause them to become more
sensitive.

If this happens, temperatures that would be simply cold to
someone who doesn't have rheumatoid arthritis could become
painful to someone who does.

A third theory is that pain causes people to be more sensitive.

Similarly to the above suggestion, pain itself can cause our
bodies to become more sensitive. When we break a bone, the body
releases pain chemicals that are picked up by our sensors, which
tells the brain that something terrible has happened.

These chemicals can cause these sensors to pick up more
information. This means if it's cold, then a broken wrist may
start hurting more, or a recently healed bone may start to ache
again. According to Mcbeth, this may just be because the pain
sensors in the areas you've hurt have become more sensitive.

"How you experience pain is a result of a complex interaction
between your biology, your environment and your psychology,"
Mcbeth said. "Psychological processes can make pain more or less
intense. Very happy, positive, upbeat people experience pain less
intensely than people who are less happy."

There's also a few theories based on what your body does in
general when it's colder. Your veins constrict and less blood flows to
your extremities, as it stays around your organs to preserve
heat. This means your skin is more rigid than normal, which can
cause more pressure on your already sensitive nerves.